Palo Alto Networks and Okta announced they are teaming up, partners said the VMware Cloud On AWS offering is destined to reshape the cloud landscape, and Houston-based solution providers fight to recover from Hurricane Harvey.

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation announced the creation of the Rebuild Texas Fund today. The fund's goal is to raise more than $100 million in charitable donations aimed at immediate relief efforts, as well as long-term recovery and rebuilding.

Comparing TCO for the new hybrid service involves a complex analysis. But experts say the joint offering from the private and public cloud leaders falls in the price range of other public clouds, and undercuts on-premises infrastructure.

VMware also expands its Workspace One mobile management platform with easier deployment technology for Windows, macOS and Chrome OS, and adds intelligence to better find issues in applications running on any device.

Joined on stage by the CEOs of AWS and HP Inc. at the VMworld conference, the VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger described a strategy that involves building out solutions that leverage big tech industry partnerships.

AWS Channel Chief Terry Wise tells CRN that it likely will be the larger systems integrators who will be the initial adopters of VMware Cloud on AWS, but it will 'rapidly expand to hundreds or thousands of partners.'

Exuberance around the open source project, once seen as a major threat to public cloud dominance, has faded. Now established players and a new breed of startups are looking to tame the notoriously challenging cloud-building software.

Azure's cheapest storage tier, launched in public preview, is geared for infrequently accessed data that once might have been discarded. Microsoft also made it easier to transition data between "blob" tiers.

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The security industry saw more threats and funding opportunities in 2017, with massive data breaches and ransomware attacks crippling major institutions, and vendors tapping into the deep pockets of private equity and IPOs.